23 PKK terrorists killed in N.Iraq, SE Turkey

By Sinan Uslu, Yilmaz Kazandioglu and Ekrem Payan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish forces on Friday killed 23 PKK terrorists in airstrikes at home and abroad, the Turkish General Staff and local authorities said.

The statement said the air forces launched airstrikes on PKK terrorist organization camps in northern Iraq Friday morning.

The strikes killed nine terrorists in the Zap area and five in the Avasin-Basyan area, it added.

Turkish security forces also killed nine PKK terrorists in southeastern Turkey Friday.

Airstrikes in the Mt. Guven area of Cukurca killed five terrorists, the Hakkari Governor’s Office said in a statement.

The army killed four terrorists in the Incebel-Kato area of the Beytussebap district, the Sirnak Governor’s office said in a statement.

More than 1,200 people, including security force personnel and civilians -- many of them women and children -- have lost their lives since the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July 2015.